The Hometown Holler

What does North Carolina's future look like through the eyes of someone who grew up watching its longest-serving governor lead the state?Lt. Governor Rachel Hunt joins The Hometown Holler for a conversation about her father, the late Governor Jim Hunt, the lessons he passed down, and the future of the state they both dedicated their careers to serving.**Subscribe to The Hometown Holler** for more conversations about the people, politics, and culture shaping North Carolina.

Storyteller and folklorist Liz Pardue started posting North Carolina stories online just to get over her stage fright. A year later, people across the state are shouting requests in her comments, packing her library shows, and selling out her ghost tours.

Liz returns to the Holler for our Halloween special to talk about haunted history, why North Carolinians are finally proud of their weird stories, and why the best answer to "North Carolina is full" might be "let me tell you a little story."

Then we put her in the hot seat with a round of North Carolina Would You Rather: Eastern vs. Lexington, Cheerwine vs. Pepsi, Bojangles vs. Cook Out, and the Wampus Cat vs. the Beast of Bladenboro.

We even learn what a beef raisin is...

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Fourth-generation mountain farmer Jamie Ager never planned on running for Congress. But after Hurricane Helene devastated Western North Carolina and Washington failed to deliver, he decided enough was enough.Now he's running in a congressional race that few thought would be competitive, NC-11.Jamie joins the Holler to talk about Helene recovery, the rising cost of living, political corruption, and why he believes Washington has lost touch with everyday Americans. We even play a little John Prine...SUPPORT THE SHOW: www.patreon.com/c/TheHometownHollerSubstack: substack.com/@thehometownhollerWebsite: www.thehometownholler.com

Everybody loves a tax break. Until somebody asks why the fire truck isn’t coming.Theo Nollert, Policy Director at Building NC's Next Chapter, joins The Holler fellas to unpack three proposed amendments to North Carolina’s Constitution, who stands to benefit, and what your hometown could lose. Voter ID, tax caps, and a whole lot of fine print. Before you check “yes,” give this one a listen.

In 1995, a young Ezra Levin wrote to Bill Watterson begging him to keep Calvin and Hobbes going. He's been an activist ever since. Two decades later, he and his wife Leah Greenberg wrote a guide to resisting the Trump agenda that grew into Indivisible, one of the largest grassroots networks in the country and a lead organizer of the No Kings protests.

Now the movement that put millions of people in the streets is asking them to do something different. On October 17, No Kings becomes No Kings Vote Early.

In this episode: why Ezra calls mass protest a tactic and not a strategy, what he tells people who are afraid to show up, why Indivisible spent this year backing challengers in Democratic primaries and now wants a "detente until December," how a movement with one slogan handles marchers who bring their own causes, and what Hungary's election, which ended Viktor Orbán's 16-year hold on power, could mean for Americans.

Also: is No Kings just anti-Trump organizing under another name? (Ezra says no, and points to one poll number about Republicans in battleground states to explain why.)

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When Terrence Everitt asked the Wake County DA to investigate the Speaker of the North Carolina House, leadership moved his office into a supply closet in the basement. He bought donuts for his new neighbors. Today he runs the North Carolina Voter Protection Alliance — and he says what's happening to voting in this state should alarm everyone, no matter who you vote for.

In this episode: why North Carolina is the only state in the country where the State Auditor controls the Board of Elections, why Sunday voting disappeared while "total voting hours" went up, what public records requests revealed about county election boards, and why a party operative admitted in writing that notevery voter can make it to the polls between 8 and 5.

Also: are North Carolina elections actually secure? (Yes — and he explains exactly why you should still be worried about something else entirely.)

CHAPTERS

00:00 "Act like a punk"

00:22 Welcome back to the Holler

00:39 The Star Wars problem with Naboo's government

03:37 Meet Terrence Everitt, NC Voter Protection Alliance

04:41 What the General Assembly taught him about voter suppression

06:53 How NC elections used to work — and what changed after 2024

08:01 The only state where the Auditor runs the Board of Elections

09:06 One word for North Carolina politics

10:21 Follow the money: secret budgets and $800 million in vouchers

11:18 Why the legislature takes power from everyone else

13:19 Who the State Auditor actually answers to

16:33 What happened at county election boards this year

18:15 Dallas Woodhouse and the 2016 memo

19:39 The Republicans who said no

20:01 Interference or guidance?

22:28 An auditor with no paper trail

23:26 Does he want to be governor?

26:23 The website says voting hours went up. Is that true?

27:05 Sunday voting, souls to the polls, and campus sites

29:18 Anson County: "not every GOP voter can make it 8 to 5"

30:13 Are North Carolina elections safe? Yes.

35:04 The voter ID compromise that isn't

38:57 The supply closet story

42:15 Why he brought his son to the DA's office

44:09 Donuts for the basement

44:50 The bathroom confrontation

46:29 "One of the best days of my life"

48:58 What a partisan poll observer actually does

51:31 The only voter he helped that day was a Republican

52:43 Losing access vs. losing trust

55:55 How to get involved

ABOUT OUR GUEST

Terrence Everitt served three terms in the North Carolina House and was elected to the State Senate in 2024. He is an attorney and now leads the North Carolina

Voter Protection Alliance. If you're a registered North Carolina voter and alicensed attorney, they will train you as a partisan poll observer.

NC Voter Protection Alliance

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What does the North Carolina Supreme Court actually do and why should you care who sits on it?Justice Anita Earls joins the Holler to talk about the power of the NC Supreme Court, gerrymandering, voting rights, public school funding, Duke Energy rates, judicial elections, and why the 2026 Supreme Court race matters.Turns out, those judicial races in the middle of your ballot have a whole lot more to do with your everyday life than you might think.Become a Sustainer: www.patreon.com/c/TheHometownHollerSubstack: substack.com/@thehometownhollerWebsite: www.thehometownholler.com

What if the future of farming isn’t just about food?Kamal Bell of Sankofa Farms is back at The Holler to talk about the future of farming in North Carolina, affordable housing, helping formerly incarcerated people rebuild their lives, the challenges facing Black farmers, and why he believes our food system needs a serious rethink.Plus, Kamal is headed to Harvard as a Loeb Fellow, where he plans to push a bigger idea: farms shouldn’t just grow food. They can help build stronger communities.Join the Holler!Become a sustainer: https://www.patreon.com/c/TheHometownHollerSubstack: https://substack.com/@thehometownhollerWebsite: https://www.thehometownholler.com/#NorthCarolina #Politics #Podcast #America250 #CapitolTonight #HometownHoller

San Diego had Ron Burgundy. North Carolina has Tim Boyum. One of our state's most prominent journalists, Tim is known and beloved by Tar Heels everywhere as the bow tie guy. This year, the longtime host of Capitol Tonight traded the studio for the open road, embarking on a 6,000-mile adventure across 24 states and DC to document America's 250th birthday.Tim joins the Holler to talk about what he learned traveling the country, meeting everyone from filmmaker Ken Burns and country legend Lee Greenwood to a guy in Austin, Texas who gave up a lucrative real estate career to build tiny home communities for homeless people. We discuss how patriotism looks different outside North Carolina, why the American flag has become less polarized than we think, and the radical power of decency and kindness. Plus: the origin story for Tim's iconic bowtie.
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Frank Bruni has held just about every job a person can have at the New York Times: reporter, White House correspondent, Rome bureau chief, chief restaurant critic, and op-ed columnist. The bestselling author and Duke professor joins the Holler to explain how he became one of Oprah's favorite people, what your grocery store says about your personality, how he once booked a table at a kosher restaurant under the name Paul Gentile, the power of "boring" in politics, and his undying love for Lana Del Rey. Plus: we make him taste test Cheerwine. Join the Holler: https://www.patreon.com/c/thehometownholler/membership